Ethics and Governance Report: Case Study and Ethical Decision Making

This report delves into the realms of ethics and governance within a business context, analyzing a specific case study involving a company's ethical dilemmas. The report begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction that emphasizes the significance of ethical conduct in business operations. It explores various ethical theories, including egoism, utilitarianism, and deontology, and applies them to the case study to evaluate the decisions made by the company's COO and other stakeholders. The report further examines the AAA model, illustrating how it can be applied to identify and address ethical issues. Finally, it discusses the application of APES 110 and how the company's actions align with its requirements. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for improving ethical practices and governance within the company.

Running head: Ethics and Governance
Ethics and Governance
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Ethics and Governance
Executive Summary
The report shows about ethics and governance, as ethics is helpful for the company to know
about the company business activities. It shows about the company is having no proper
amount of salary of the employee so that it able to have proper amount of ethics in the
business. It shows how the company is able to make ethical decision in regards of the
company, as it show how the company is able to manage the ethics in the company business.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Part A.........................................................................................................................................3
Part B..........................................................................................................................................5
Part C..........................................................................................................................................8
Option for Arnold...................................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
Reference..................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Each company should able to follow professional ethics while carrying its business
activities. As ethics are the base which help the company to make proper amount of relation
with the employee and society (Bahne 2015). Company should have a proper ethics rule and
regulation so that each individual is able to work as per the need and preference of the
company. The report shows about the company which is not able to follow proper wages
policy as it does not able to pay the employee as per the regulation. It shows about the
different theory which the company employee should follow (Barrow 2015). The report is
divided into three parts and each part is able to represent one aspects of the company. The
first part deal with different theory which company should able to apply while taking
necessary decision in the company. Second part shows about the AAA Model in regards of
company COO Arnold which is show how the company should able to analysis the case and
able to take necessary decision in company financial statement. Last part of the report shows
about the APES 110 and it show how the company is able to meet the requirement which is
mention there and also it show how the company is able react for the same.
Part A
Theory of egoism shows that the individual is always able to select the self-interest
first over the society interest. It signifies that when the time of decision is able to come than
individual is able to think of himself first and after meeting its own need, then only it able to
meet the needs of others (Broad 2014). As it always able to work for the things in which it
able to get work whereas it does not give its effort upon the things in which it does not able to
have any amount of interest.
As per the case study of the company it can seen that, the company is not able to have
proper wages to it employee, as COO Mr Goodrich is consider it can be seen that the

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company is applying this theory while taking decision in the company. The decision which is
taken by the company COO in regards of the employee wages is that it does not able to take
the decision as per the company employee, but it took decision by keeping self-interest so this
show that the company COO is able to apply theory of egoism in the company business
activities.
Theory of utilitarianism is the theory which show that the company individual should
able to have decision while taking whole society in it (Feiwel 2016). As this theory suggest
that the individual is not taking decision on self-interest but taking decision by keeping the
decision of whole society as a whole. So under this the individual is able to keep an track as
how it decision is able to impact the society and thus it took decision that can safe interest of
many people.
As per the case study given in the question, it shows that the company COO is not
able to achieve this theory as the decision which the COO has taken is not in record upon the
interest of the society but it able to take the decision as per the company interest so that the
company is able to have less cost of investment in the business (George, Jones & Harvey
2014). If the company COO wanted to approach as per this theory than it could have done by
taking the advice which was given by Arnold in regards of company payment of wages to its
employee. It should have opted for the option as it can go the higher authority and would
have said that due to some error this mistake happened and should rectify the same, than only
it could able to apply the theory of utilitarianism in the business. Mr Goodrich is not able to
take the decision while keeping the society interest but it took the decision by keeping self-
interest so this denotes that the company COO is not able to apply the theory of
utilitarianism.

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As per Arnold is concern, it able to try its authority so that the company can change
its HR Policy which will help the employee to get the required amount of salary which they
deserve to get from the company (Heller 2018). It also made two types of plan which can
help them to rectify their mistake, but as the COO is not willing to listen Arnold and not able
to take the right decision. This show that Arnold is able to support the theory of utilitarianism
in company business practice. It able to apply the theory in theoretical way but does not able
to make it practically applicable in the company business.
Theory of deontology state that, the act should be judged by the happening of the
event as it should be judged that, the act is right or wrong as it checks the act in starting and
does not check the consequences of doing the act (Kaplan & Atkinson 2015). For example, if
a person is cheating in examination than it will see that cheating is not right so it should not
be done, it will not check due to cheating the student will able to get more amount of marks
and able to pass the examination. So this show that the decision should be checked
independently and not by the result it will able to make on others.
As per the case study is concern it can said that Arnold is able to meet the criteria as
this help it to take proper amount of decision in company, as it went to change the decision of
the company in order to provide sufficient amount of wages to the employee of the company.
It went to make a proper strategy that will help the company to change its HR Policy and also
help them to rectify the mistake which the company is not able make in the HR Policy of the
company. The COO of the company is not able to provide the support which was needed by
Arnold in order to change the HR Policy so this show that it able to apply this theory in the
ethical issue which is been face by the company.

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Part B
Company should able to have proper goals and objective in regards of its business
activities. It can achieve the required goals and objective only when it able to have
professional ethics in the company (Kieso, Weygandt & Warfield 2016). Ethics help the
company to reach its mission and vision more easily. Company should able to have proper
amount of governance so that it can able to have a proper flow of work in the company
business. AAA model that stands for American Accounting Association which help the
company to know about the ethical issuer and also how it will able to get rid of the same. So,
AAA Model as per Mr Goodrich is shown below:
1. Information of the Case – Firstly the company should able to know the information
in regards of the business activities in which it able to face some kind of ethical issue,
as it should see the information properly than only it can know the reason why the
company is able to face such kind of situation (Levit 2014). Company should get all
the facts and figure which are there that force the company to face such kind of
situation in the business. The company is not able to pay required amount of wages in
the company employee.
2. Finding of Ethical Issue – Secondly company should analysis the case information
which it able to get in step 1 as this will help the company to know the issue which
they are facing in the business activities. As it can only able to clear the problem
when it able to know it so it should first identify the problem which is been faced by
the company in the business (Libby 2017). The ethical issue is that the company is not
able to make wages to its employee as per the regulation so this is the situation which
the company is facing and able to rectify the mistake.
3. Gathering Information of rules and regulation – As the company is able to know
the issue which is been there in company business activity, then it should able to

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know the rules and regulation which is been associated by the problem. As it should
able to know the rule and regulation without the help of them it will not able to make
proper amount rectification in the rules and regulation of the company (Logsdon &
Wood 2005). Company will able to meet all the requirement of rules so that it can
make proper changes in the HR Policy of the company.
4. Step Required by the Problem - As the company is able to get all the rules and
regulation so it should check the step which is there for the company to rectify its
mistake and able to have a proper flow of business in the company (Lyons 2015). In
the case study it can see that Arnold is able to provide two steps which the company
will able to take in regards of the HR Policy so that the company is able to meet all
the requirement and able to get a proper policy for its employee. As the situation
which Arnold gave is that it can go to higher authority and ask them for time so that
the company is able to make proper changes in the company policy and able to give
proper wages to the company employee.
5. Steps Comparison with the Rules – Company should able to provide the rules and
the step select by the company COO so that it can know whether the decision which
the company is able to take is correct or not (Mill 2016). If the company is able to
know that the step and rules are able to get connect with each other than it should able
to implied those step in the company financial statement and able to solve the
problems faced by the company.
6. Consequences of Company Decision – The company after getting proper amount of
steps which it should able to take in order to get rid of ethical issue, so it should it
check how the company decision will able to affect the company both internally as
well as externally so that the company can knowhow the decision will be affecting the
employee and other person associated with the company (Mulgan 2014).

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7. Final Decision – As the company is able to complete all above points so it should
able to take necessary decision which is been selected in above steps so that it can
able to over the ethical issue in the company business (Overall 2016). As per the case
study it can see that the company is able to select that it will not do any changes in the
company HR Policy so that no one will able to know that their was a mistake which is
been done by the company in regards of wages of the employees.
Part C
APES 110 is for Ethics as it shows how the company is able to manage the ethics in
the company business. It shows various kind of principal which is to be followed by the
company professional so that it can able to have proper flow of work in company business
(Pauly, Froese & Holt 2016). The principle which is been there in APES 110 are shown
below:
1. Confidentiality – Company employee should able to keep the confidence of company
information as it does not able to share the information with anyone. As the company
may have many sensitive information so it should be considered that the company
employee is able to keep the confident of the company financial statement easily and
effectively (Payne, Corey & Raiborn 2018). As per the case the COO of the company
had told Arnold not to disclose all this matter in the company and also should able to
delete all the files which are there in regards of the issue , so this is its duty to keep all
the facts and figure to itself only and not to share with anyone.
2. Professional Due and Care - It state that the company employees should able to
work professionally as it should able to take each decision while taking many factors
into consideration. Individual should able to have work ethics than only it can able to
achieve the desired goals and objective easily and effectively (Pojman, McShane &
Pojman 2015). As in the case study the decision which is taken by COO should be

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professional based and no self interest should come in between the decision of the
same.
3. Integrity – As the individual should able to have proper amount of trust and honesty
while carrying its business activities in the business so this should be taken into
consideration while doing the business activities in the company. As per the case it
the COO of the company should be able to meet up all the decision with honesty so
that no one is able to get affected by the decision which is been made by the COO in
regards of the employee wages.
4. Objectivity – Company should able to have proper amount of objective in the
business as this will help them to get a proper view of the business. Each individual
should able to work as per the need of the company and not for themselves, as then
only it can able to manage to complete the goals and objective of the company.
Option for Arnold
1. Complain to Higher Authority – Arnold should able to apply the complaint to the
higher authority in the company as it should forward all the details to its board of
director or the trustee of the company, so that it will able to help them to get proper
amount of knowledge and they able to sort out the matter more easily and effectively.
2. Help from Trade Union – It can take help from the trade union as they are the one
who help each class of employee so this will help him to get proper amount of pay
from the company (Riley 2016). It will help it to gain a proper HR Policy in company
so that each kind of employee is able to get a proper amount of salary from the
company.
3. Notice – Arnold is able to send a legal notice to the company so that this will help the
company to gain a knowledge about the wrong in the company and help them to
change the HR Policy of the company (Schaltegger & Burritt 2017). As legal notice

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will give a pressure to the company so that it can make rectification upon the fault
which is been made by them.
4. Communication – Arnold should able to communicate with COO, one more time so
that it can make it agree upon the company to change the HR Policy of the company
and also help them to know all the problem which the employee are facing in the
company.
5. Resignation – If the company is not able to maintain the problem properly, than it
should resignation from the post so that it can able to have proper amount of ethics in
the business.
Conclusion
The report conclude about ethics and governance as this is most important for any
company. It concludes upon the company which is not able to have a proper HR Policy so
this show how the company is able to manage its business operation ethically and effectively.
It concludes that the COO of the company is not able to agree with Arnold proposal of
changing the HR Policy as the COO want to make no change in the company HR Policy.

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Reference
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Springer.
George, G., Jones, A., & Harvey, J. (2014). Analysis of the language used within codes of
ethical conduct. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 8, 1.
Heller, A. (2018). The theory of need in Marx. Verso Books.
Kaplan, R. S., & Atkinson, A. A. (2015). Advanced management accounting. PHI Learning.
Kieso, D. E., Weygandt, J. J., & Warfield, T. D. (2016). Intermediate Accounting, Binder
Ready Version. John Wiley & Sons.
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Logsdon, J. M., & Wood, D. J. (2005). Global business citizenship and voluntary codes of
ethical conduct. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(1-2), 55-67.
Lyons, D. (2015). Utilitarianism. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-4.
Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven masterpieces of philosophy (pp. 337-383).
Routledge.